Tom Crosby vice president of communications for AAA Carolinas praised Ridgeland’s iTraffic system and told lawmakers that South Carolina has the third highest death rate per mile driven.

“Ridgeland is a success story,” he said. “It shows local initiative and offsets the inadequate funding that the Legislature has chosen to do when it comes to funding law enforcement personnel in the state.”

Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, took issue with Crosby’s reliance on crash data provided by Hodges, which indicates accidents and speeders have declined since the system’s deployment.

Rutherford argued that the camera system was put up only after the summer driving season.

“How can AAA Carolinas, without using someone who has a profit motive, how can they determine that this had any impact whatsoever?” said Rutherford.

Along with Hodges, iTraffic president Bill Danzell and town police chief Richard Woods also defended the system before the committee.

Woods voiced a complaint already raised in a letter to state leaders this week by Danzell -- that Rutherford had a conflict of interest on the issue, because his law firm was part of a legal challenge against the town and iTraffic contractor.

After the meeting Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison said the Ethics Committee had reviewed the question of Rutherford’s roles and found that he was free to vote on the bill.

The legislation, S. 336, has already passed the Senate.

“It appears to me the bill creates the study commission that both sides want,” said subcommittee chairman Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville. “If Ridgeland’s doing it right, then we’re going to let everybody else do it the same way and make it clear that what youre doing is the way to go.”

Bannister said the bill, “is to maintain the status quo, which is not to embrace new technologies that we may or may not want to use.”

The iTrafffic system has been in place along a 7-mile stretch of I-95 through Ridgeland since August.